Americans, tell me about your state

[Tuesday Night Fever]

From what I've heard, both of your states are tied along with Minnesota and Maine for the title of "Canada within the United States".

Despite how close they are, I've never actually been to Canada, so I don't really know. I'd like to visit sometime, but time and money are factors.

I'd certainly prefer that comparison over the "you guys are like the south of the north!" comments that I frequently heard while I was attending college in North Carolina. Back then I'd kinda roll my eyes at that, because New Hampshire may as well have been called North Massachusetts at the time. But these days... I see a lot of Confederate flags these days.

EDIT:
I didn't mean that to sound quite so inflammatory toward the south. I had a genuinely great experience living in North Carolina those four years, and I've had good experiences with my visits to other southern states. It's just that that stereotype didn't really exist much in my area prior to the Obama administration, or it just wasn't as visible.

Can't say I've even really had a bad experience with the folks that display Confederate flags here. My job involves a lot of interaction with the public, and they've been mostly friendly. It's just an odd thing to see up here.

 

[Avnger]

Illinois:

There's Chicago which encompasses about 8% of the state area-wise if you include the suburbs. Then there's cornfields and cows? I guess? *shrug* Everyone (including residents and the state government) forgets that there's actually like the other 92% of the landmass that has people living on it.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Missouri.

It basically sucks. Everyone is basically either racist or inbred. Oh, and Monsanto. And we have no good food.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Missouri.

It basically sucks. Everyone is basically either racist or inbred. Oh, and Monsanto. And we have no good food.

Yeesh, don't hold back; tell us how you really feel! XD

 

[PsychicTaco115]

I'm from, but no longer live in, Delaware. It's tiny.

Same. Pisses me off that Rhode Island has more counties than we do reeeeee

North carolina.

Specifically, the west part of it. It's mostly halfbackers, yuppie retired old white people who moved to Florida but thought it was too hot so they moved halfway back up. but swore they've lived here their entire life.

Pretty true for Raleigh/Durham area too

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Missouri.

It basically sucks. Everyone is basically either racist or inbred. Oh, and Monsanto. And we have no good food.

Yeesh, don't hold back; tell us how you really feel! XD

Oh it should come as no surprise that MO sucks.

 

[Avnger]

Missouri.

It basically sucks. Everyone is basically either racist or inbred. Oh, and Monsanto. And we have no good food.

Yeesh, don't hold back; tell us how you really feel! XD

Oh it should come as no surprise that MO sucks.

I like KC, MO =/

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I'm from New Jersey.

...so, yeah.

*cough*

All the jokes are true.

Jersey guy here, too. He's not lying.

Fellow former Jerseyan here also. Totes true. Like I often tell people: There's a reason all the tolls are on the roads leaving New Jersey.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Pennsylvania here! Specifically southeastern PA, just a few miles away from Philadelphia. Not much to say, other than it's part rural, part suburban, depending on where you live.

 

[Recusant]

I'm from Illinois, which is not actually in Usa; that's in Japan, which is part of a different continent. One of the unusual things about Illinois is that most of us will claim that our drivers aren't actually that bad (and having visited and driven in all states except Alaska, I agree with them)- but the stupidity of the way our road maintenance systems are set up, you'll get stuck behind them anyway, since some doofus decided to start a concrete-laying project last November, which of course screwed it up badly enough that it has to be completely redone since concrete won't cure properly when it's below freezing. They're looking to start the new project next November, and meanwhile, half the highway lanes are shut down for no good reason. Illinois also has the nation's highest gas tax; a legacy of the time when Chicago was the transportation hub of North America.

Another interesting note is that we outclass all 49 of the other states in terms of political corruption; even the likes of New York and New Jersey can't compete (though we're all pikers compared to most of the Third World). Chicago and Springfield (the state's capital) even have their own separate flavors of it. Don't believe we that we're ahead of ::insert state here::? Okay, then, consider this: Jesse White is the current Illinois Secretary of State, and has been for quite a long time; he's been in politics longer than most people reading this have been alive. He's one of our longstanding political good guys; not even a hint of corruption has ever tainted him- until 2009. And this wasn't a long-hidden scandal being uncovered, either: when Obama won the presidency, governor Blagojevich needed to appoint a replacement. He chose Roland Burris, and when rumors that Burris had bought the Senate seat came out, Jesse White said he'd refuse to sign off on it. But he doesn't get to make that decision; he has to sign off on it; otherwise, the Secretary of State would have more power than the governor. Even our political heroes don't know how to get things done in a way that shouldn't land them in jail- where they could say hello to three of our last five governors. When I suggest they should be sworn in and immediately given an orange jumpsuit, I'm not kidding.

Also, we have the Italian beef, a sandwich that serves as a way of identifying those who've never visited before, as one can only learn the odd lean that need to do to eat it without dousing yourself in gravy. Most of us have it, anyway; it's pretty much unknown more than a hundred miles outside of Chicago, and goodness knows why. You need enough Italians to get it started, sure, but why it hasn't spread more effectively is a mystery. We also have pizza that comes with a drowsiness warning and sausages thick enough to use as sex toys.

 

[TakerFoxx]

I'm from southern California.

Pros: Great (if inconsistent) weather, lots of cool stuff to do, top quality food, anything needed is always nearby, and diverse population means we've got a little bit of everything.

Cons: Super expensive, parking is a *****, and traffic is always awful.

Other notes: The stereotype is true. "Dude" really is a gender neutral, universal pronoun. I call my mom dude. I call my car dude. My mom calls me dude. I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude, cause we're all dudes, hey!

 

[TakerFoxx]

No you don't! California has far worse drivers, the kind who will make a right turn from a far left hand left turn lane on a ten lane street. California has worse traffic too.

I beg to differ. California actually has the best drivers. It's just that our streets and highways are always on the highest difficulty so we've developed our lightning fast reflexes and ability to regularly pull off turns and lane changes that those used to playing on easy can't keep up with.

In other words, git gud, rest of America.

Edit: I will agree with you on the traffic though.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Washington state.

I live near Seattle. Like, for real close, not in that "I figure you don't know where my hometown is so I'm just gonna say 'Seattle'" way, I'm a ferry ride away from Seattle, and my house is ten minutes from the ferry dock.

Anyway.

It's wintertime, sometimes we hope for know but fully expect to not get it. The weatherman has been predicting snow quite often, been wrong quite often. He was right a couple days ago. I woke up (late) and there was about one or two inches that was there for about an hour, it's a Christmas miracle.
Still, it's rather cold here, 35 degrees as of right now, be careful on the roads and you should be good. And we have very little sunlight. I don't know if it's like this for the rest of the country, but we have, like, five or six or seven hours of daylight now. It's currently 5:45P, it looks like it's 9 or 10.

Other than winter, the other seasons will either turn out to be what they should be, hot summers, wet springs, so on, or they'll just be cloudy and drizzly.

 

[Neverhoodian]

California, specifically the Sacramento Valley region. It's largely agricultural around these parts, with rice and almonds being the major cash crops. I happen to live in one of the few modestly sized cities, but travel just half a mile west from my position and you'll run into a bunch of orchards.

Unlike our southern brethren, we northern Californians made the sensible decision not to build our cities next to deserts. Unfortunately we're more sparsely populated, which means southern California routinely siphons our ground water away in order to keep their giant swimming pools and immaculate golf courses. It's a pet peeve of mine when people automatically think of surfing and palm trees when I mention my state. The landscape is actually quite diverse where I live, ranging from wetlands to snow-covered mountains.

We're also not the progressive hotbed that everyone thinks we are. With the exception of Sacramento and the Bay Area, most districts up north are distinctly conservative (I'm more center-left, which makes me an anomaly). Again though, we don't have the numbers like in other, more left leaning parts of the state, so the Democrats pretty much have free reign concerning state matters. This had led to a movement advocating the formation of a new state called Jefferson, though it's little more than a pipe dream at this point.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Texas, born and raised (minus high school). It's too hot for my tastes, and half of my entire family lives here because my mom likes to live close to home (my dad is from Massachusetts, where all of his family still lives). You also have to drive forever to get anywhere. The people are nice enough, at least for me, a straight white male. I certainly wouldn't mind living somewhere else, preferably somewhere cold, but I'm planning on taking advantage of the state college benefits for veterans, so for now I'm going to stay.

No, I don't have an accent. Probably partly because I grew up on the gulf coast, where there doesn't seem to be much of an accent, and partly because neither of my parents have accents, even though their's do.

I've been to Houston dozens of times and San Antonio a few times, but I've only ever been to Dallas, Austin, and El Paso once. The city I live in, Corpus Christi, is... okay. It's not huge, which suits me just fine, but it's big enough to warrant grocery delivery services, which also suits me just fine. It's also very very windy, one of the windiest cities in the U.S. I believe, which helps combat the heat a bit.

As states go, Texas seems to be pretty high up there in terms of pride, but fails on nearly every level to back it up. I'm not saying it's the worst state, but for all its people boasting about how great it is, it really doesn't measure up.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

I'm from New Jersey.

...so, yeah.











*cough*

All the jokes are true.

True story: 2 months ago I drove from Michigan to New York for a week long trip, and the 3 total hours I spent in New Jersey was the worst part of the trip.

I've lived my whole life in Michigan, mostly within half an hour of Detroit. What you've heard about our greatest city is mostly true. It's a scary, squalid dump except for the part of downtown near our sports stadiums. Still, during baseball season it is a cool place to spend a day, see a game and get some food.

Overall, the Mitten is a hard state to define. We're rust belt, so mostly liberal in the populated areas despite having an economy entirely built on heavy industry, but there is a lot of rural, right-leaning territory in the middle and North of the state. The recession almost destroyed us and we've recovered much slower than the rest of the country. Our school system is a disaster, and getting worse. Oh, and we still have done NOTHING to take down our egomaniacal governor who hates workers unions and teachers, and who personally poisoned the city of Flint's water supply which killed several people and permanently harmed hundreds more. A problem that is still ongoing 2 years later.

Our weather is a clusterfuck of contrasts due to being almost surrounded by lakes, which climate change has only made weirder. Our roads are more pothole than cement, and the urban blight in Detroit has been spreading lately to surrounding suburbs. My brother just moved to Chicago and I have a few friends who have recently moved or are thinking of moving to California. I'm starting to consider following them.

But still, it's the only home I've known and it's hard to think about leaving.

 

[BaronVH]

Arkansas. Our alcohol is not as good as the OP's in Scotland. Scotch whisky is much better than moonshine. I am a fairly liberal person politically, and until recently I would say my state has pockets of racism, but I now believe they are everywhere. If you figure there are knuckleheads all over the globe and not just here, then Arkansas is fairly nice. Many people do not know how beautiful it is. Wonderful rivers, nice trails, and a lot of places that aren't known to everyone. The Buffalo River is amazing, and there are nice places outdoors all over. In the summer it is way too hot. From July to September the heat is unbearable as the humidity is extremely high as well. Another plus is that it is close to many other places that are nice to visit: Memphis, New Orleans, Dallas, and just ten hours by car to some nice beaches. 16 hours to snow skiing. It used to be democratic politically and has switched to republican, but we still enacted medical marijuana, so go figure. We have no major professional sports teams, but most would consider the Razorbacks our de-facto pro team. Another big unknown: our barbecue is fantastic, and we have pretty good cheese dip too. Fried catfish is another culinary delight. I would say that overall it is a nice place to live, and we have plenty areas to improve.

 

[Erttheking]

Massachusetts. Can't complain. People say that the taxes are high, but I feel like it's worth it. Suburbs are nice and comfortable and the people seem rather well educated.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

From Montana. 4th largest state in the union, just after Texas, but has less than a million people living here. Which means far too many roads to take care of even with generous amounts of federal assistance.

Oddly, the state has an overly aggressive "fuck you, I do what I want" stance regarding Federal stuff, which is why I'm going to need a passport in a couple months if I want to fly anywhere because we've repeatedly told the Feds to fuck off when they updated the guidelines on what features an ID needed to have. So that's lovely.

As the state of Ted Kazinsky, or the Unabomber, as he's colloquially known, we have a fair number of compounds, from white nationalists, sovereign citizens, Neo-Nazis, religious nuts, and Klansmen, to the nuttier survivalists.

Also, anybody who orgasms over the beautiful mountains and the like in video games really needs to visit Glacier National Park sometime. Your ID should be fine for flying.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

California, specifically the Sacramento Valley region. It's largely agricultural around these parts, with rice and almonds being the major cash crops. I happen to live in one of the few modestly sized cities, but travel just half a mile west from my position and you'll run into a bunch of orchards.

Unlike our southern brethren, we northern Californians made the sensible decision not to build our cities next to deserts. Unfortunately we're more sparsely populated, which means southern California routinely siphons our ground water away in order to keep their giant swimming pools and immaculate golf courses. It's a pet peeve of mine when people automatically think of surfing and palm trees when I mention my state. The landscape is actually quite diverse where I live, ranging from wetlands to snow-covered mountains.

We're also not the progressive hotbed that everyone thinks we are. With the exception of Sacramento and the Bay Area, most districts up north are distinctly conservative (I'm more center-left, which makes me an anomaly). Again though, we don't have the numbers like in other, more left leaning parts of the state, so the Democrats pretty much have free reign concerning state matters. This had led to a movement advocating the formation of a new state called Jefferson, though it's little more than a pipe dream at this point.

At least we here in SoCal understand we?re savannah and desert locations, unlike you NoCal folk who drained vast marshes and swampland and forests to make those farmlands! Plus, your ground water isn?t used for SoCal, it?s used in in your farms and industrial practices.

But anyway, yes California. We may be ?blue? for federal elections, we?re pretty much purple locally. Red and blue all over, though tends to be Blue Coast and Red Inland. Also what is liberal in Los Angeles is different from San Fransisco liberal, from San Diego liberal, or Sacramento liberal.

If you want to travel from Los Angeles/San Diego northbound, or San Fransicso/Sacramento southbound, it will take you between 6-10 hours of driving one direction depending on what roads you take and what traffic you deal with. Also gas prices are priced crazy. Main street or highway gas station? Crazy expensive (From $3.50 to more than $4 in such areas). More out of the way streets or middle of small time shopping areas? Quite cheap (Seem them from $2.20 to $3.10 in such areas).

There are a lot of small town locations all across the state that are great places to be if you know what you?re looking for and where it is located in the state, but you will need to find a motel at least to be able to enjoy said locations.

Nationally, we?re the reason many states are even able to stay afloat, because a large number of our federal tax dollars are siphoned away from us to keep them from collapsing completely. Upwards to 35-40% of our tax money is taken away. We?re also the major food producer of the country, most of what we grow goes to the markets across the nation (And lots of it goes across the world too).

Every city, town, and county is completely different. Don?t expect someone from one part of Los Angeles to act in the same manner as another part, same is in a person from San Diego to act the same as someone from Barstow, San Francisco, San Jose, etc. We?re one giant state, but our population could effectively be compared to at least 5 different states due to the vast cultural differences in this huge ass state.